Thursday 20 December 2012

Do Not Mess With Fish 181,

and you thought fish were fun!


shoppers who normally look at the sharks being feed like this did not when a giant aquarium with sharks turtles and other marine life exploded at a shopping mall yesterday, 

 the entrance to the Dongfang shopping mall in Shaghai, China was flooded and covered in glass when the 34-tonne casing suddenly shattered,

the sad news is that three lemon sharks and dozens of smaller fish and turtles perished when the 34 ton tank shattered without warning, say police, the tank had become a local landmark since it was installed two years ago and every week a diver would swim with the sharks, feeding them by hand, 'there was no warning, just a loud crack and it went, I've never been so scared,' said one worker, as an aside I think you will find that the glass did not crack, glass is seldom used in large aquariums, materials such as Perspex or Acrylic are normally used in the construction of large public aquariums like these.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Actually they DO use glass but it is LAMINATED for strength. Acrylics and Perspex are not scratch resistant. Pilkingtons Glass make such glass for aquariums around the world. I know because I designed the equipment for Pilkingtons New Zealand in 1984 and the laminated glass produced was for many projects including huge walk-through aquariums. This aquarium must have only used TOUGHENED glass and this can shatter from ultra-sound and can be broken easily with self-impacting centre-pops used in industry. This was the vandals favourite way of smashing bus stop glass screens in the late 20th century and that is why most are now laminated glass. Can still break but is held together by the laminate bonding.